Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) will develop a US$99 million cargo processing facility at the U.S.-Mexico border, aimed to improve traffic between southern Texas and the state of Tamaulipas in northern Mexico.

Once the facility is completed, the company forecasts it can increase traffic from 24 to 32 trains crossing daily. Currently, it operates 24 trains per day, as infrastructure poses a bottleneck, limiting further traffic expansion.

Such infrastructure revamp comes along with procedural changes to smooth crossborder activity, including a program with U.S. and Mexican customs authorities to set up joint inspections in Laredo, Texas, a port that handles more than 37% of rail traffic between the U.S. and Mexico.

The company also negotiated with trade unions not to change drivers when trains cross the border. Both measures, along with the new processing facility are expected to increase traffic by 33%.

KCS is the main rail freight operator in the U.S. offering services to Mexico, serving 12 ports on the Gulf of Mexico and one on the Mexican Pacific coast. The company handles cars and auto parts, steel, grain, and oil-derivative products.

The company profits increased 34.8% in the third quarter, boosted by a strong growth of cross-border traffic between the U.S. and Mexico.

KCS reported net income of US$174 million up from US$129 million in the third quarter on record revenues of US$699 million, which represented an increase of 6% from prior year on 4% volume growth.

Revenues increased in three commodity groups, led by a 17% increase in Chemicals and Petroleum due to refined product shipments to Mexico. In fact, fuel carloads moving into Mexico from the U.S. increased by 164% from 5,132 units in the third quarter of 2017 to 13,355 in the same period of 2018, according company officials at the Q3 earnings conference call.

KCS cargo volume increased after the Mexico government introduced new regulations on truckers; however, the company now faces some real challenges as car congestion has increased.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey presented a 2020 budget proposal of US$700,000, which would improve refrigerated capacity at international customs between Sonora and Arizona to increase international trade.

In social networks, the president of Arizona said that "Arizona is open to business, and we have investment proposals to bring more trade through the Mariposa checkpoint in Nogales.

The Governor's Office said that the expenses would attract new imports to the international port, and the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA) based in Nogales.

The group of investors said in a statement that the investment would help the state to add jobs and increase its tax base.

CIUDAD OBREGÓN – 55 investment projects are being negotiated by authorities of Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico of the State of Sonora for this 2019, although it is unknown how many of these plans are projected for the south of the State.

Leonardo Ciscomani Freaner, undersecretary of Desarrollo Económico of the State, estimated that at least between 12 and 15 of the projects will be completed, although it is unknown for which area of the entity it will be.

"We are working very hard to achieve the investment, which correspond to areas such as space, electronics and mining, these are strategic areas of the State of Sonora," he added.

The advantages that the 55 prospects see in the state are: proximity to the United States and the presence of the port of Guaymas, which would facilitate the exit of various products by sea, and that despite the statistics Sonora continues to be a safe state for investment.

In the last quarter of 2018 there were reported more than 296,000 people working in the tourism sector of Baja California Sur.

The minister of Secretaría de Turismo, Economía y Sustentabilidad (Setues), Luis Humberto Araiza Lopez, pointed out that 74.5% of the existing workforce in the South Californian territory corresponds to tourism.

The sum of efforts , allows increasing the arrival of visitors to all destinations in Baja California Sur and generate a greater economic flow, added Minister Araiza.

"We are a state with a tourist vocation and the professional development we have sustained in this industry has allowed us to position ourselves as a national benchmark in terms of economic growth," said Araiza Lopez at the conclusion.